Do you talk with yourself? When we hear people talking aloud with themselves we consider it weird. But have you noticed that all people, with no exception, talk silently with themselves? This, we do not consider odd or weird.

If someone hurts you in some way, or says something you do not like, what do you do? You enact a whole scene of anger in your mind! You envision yourself talking angrily; you shout at him and tell him some not so nice things. Sometimes people spend hours in such negative, destructive inner dialogues.

There is a continuous conversation going on in everyone's head, and a lot of energy, time and attention are wasted on small unimportant incidents. This conversation goes on from the moment of waking until falling asleep.

The inner dialogue continues while working, studying, reading, watching TV, talking, walking, eating, etc. There is a constant judging of people, commenting on what is going on, planning, gossiping, and mental conversations with people.

These inner dialogues bring about a snowball effect. The more we conduct them, the more we become chained to them and unable to stop them. When the emotions are also evoked, more power, energy and attachment are added. This has an adverse effect on the behavior, judgment and general performance.

On many occasions the inner dialogue is negative and strengthens any negative attitude and behavior. Few people have enough faith in themselves and in their abilities, so as to conduct positive inner dialogues. The process and effect of these inner conversations is similar to affirmations. Constant thinking about the same subject influences the subconscious mind, which consequently accepts these thoughts and words and acts on them. Negative inner dialogues bring negative results, and positive inner dialogues bring positive results.

You can use this process to your advantage. It is an automatic activity, which goes on whether you are aware of it or not. If you learn to become aware of it, you gain the ability to control it. You can turn it into a positive dialogue. If you do that, you come to realize that you have a mighty power in your possession .

Try to be aware of your thoughts. Calmly watch what is going in your mind, even if after a few moments you may forget to do that. The inner dialogue goes on even when physically you are engaged with something else. It is not so easy to mentally separate oneself from the thoughts and words the flow through the mind.

Over and over again endeavor to keep your attention of what is going inside your head, and eventually you will be able to become aware of the inner dialogue for longer times. Watching the mind and what is going on inside it develops detachment. Detachment gives a better control of the mind and its chatter.

Whenever you catch yourself conducting a useless, futile conversation with yourself, stop it. Change it to something more useful. Replace the subject, and the words. It is like running an audiotape. Why not replace it with another tape that you like? Why let this tape play by itself? Change the words of the inner dialogue to positive ones about good health, happiness and success.

There is another thing you can do, but this needs concentration and will power. You can try to stop this inner conversation altogether. Try to ignore it and give your mind a vacation. Let the mind rest for a little while. Life can certainly go on, even when this dialogue is silenced. For a little while, enjoy some rest from the mind's incessant conversation.

The inner dialogue is fine sometimes, but most of the time it is just incessant useless chatter, which distract the attention from what you are doing at each moment. By becoming aware of it, and replacing it with a positive one, or just refusing to become involved with it, you gain the ability to control it.

Copyright Remez Sasson